He did not face her when he made this speech, and he did not observe
the amusement that crept into her eyes. He could not sense his own
greatness of presence sufficiently to know that his claim to be a
parasite upon so incapable a creature as the false Philadelphus would
awaken doubt in the mind of an intelligent woman like Amaryllis.
He felt that he was not covering his tracks well, and put his
ingenuity to a test.
"The boon-craver therefore should not sit like a dog, begging crumbs,
till the table is laid. My hunger would appear as competition, if I
showed it him, while he is yet unfed. Of a truth, I would not have him
know I am here."
"I will keep thy secret," she promised, smiling.
"I thank you," he said gravely. "I came, on this occasion, to ask
after the young woman, whose name I have not learned--her whom you
have sheltered."
Amaryllis' smiling eyes darkened suddenly.
"Pouf!" she said. "I had begun to hope that you had come to see me!"
"I had not John's permission," he objected.
"Have you Philadelphus' permission to see her?"
He looked his perplexity.
"What," she exclaimed, "has she not laid her claim before you yet?"
The Maccabee shook his head.
"Know, then, that this pretty nameless creature claims to be the wife
of this same Philadelphus."
He sat up in his earnestness.
"What!" he cried.
"Even so! Insists upon it in the face of the lady princess' proofs and
Philadelphus' denial!"
The Maccabee's brows dropped while he gazed down at the Greek.
Julian of Ephesus was then the husband that she was to join in
Jerusalem! Small wonder she had been indignant when he, the Maccabee,
in the spirit of mischief, had laid a wife to Julian's door and had
described her as most unprepossessing. And that was why her terror of
Julian had been so abject! That was why she had flown to him, a
stranger, rather than be left alone with a husband who, it seemed,
would be rid of her that he might pursue his ends the better!
"What think you of it!" he exclaimed aloud, but to himself.
"And I never saw in all my life such pretensions of probity!" the
Greek continued. "She is outraged by any little word that questions
her virtue; she holds herself aloof from me as if she were not certain
that I am fit for her companionship; and she flies with fluffed
feathers and cries of rage in the face of the least compliment that
comes from any lips--even Philadelphus!"
The Maccabee continued to gaze at the Greek. He did not see the
woman's search of his face for an assent to her speech. He was
struggling with a desire to tell her that he was eager to exchange his
wife for Julian's.